A total of 866 new cases of the coronavirus were diagnosed across Israel Monday, according to data released by the Health Ministry Tuesday morning, up from 839 new cases reported a day earlier.
The increase in the number of new diagnoses, however, resulted entirely from the larger number of tests performed Monday, with the percentage of tests coming back positive falling Monday to 0.88%, down from 1.02% on Sunday. That is the lowest level recorded since July 10th.
The number of known active cases of the virus across Israel dropped to 11,439, down from 11,691 a day earlier. The number of hospitalized COVID patients also fell Tuesday, declining to 367.
Since the pandemic began, 1,324,451 confirmed cases of the virus have been reported.
The number of seriously ill patients continued to fall Tuesday, sinking from 263 on Monday to 249. That is the fewest seriously ill COVID patients since August 4th.
Of those 249 seriously ill patients, 156 are in critical condition, including 139 patients on respirators.
The infection coefficient, which measures the decline or expansion of the pandemic, dipped to 0.72 on October 15th, the latest day for which data is available, falling from 0.74 the day before. The reproduction coefficient (R) has remained below 1.0 since September 6th, marking a decline in the pandemic.
Thus far, a total of 8,062 coronavirus-related fatalities have been recorded across Israel, including five deaths on Monday.